1996: On April 6th, 31,683 fans poured into Spartan Stadium in San Jose to witness United
taking on the Clash in the first ever MLS match. The game would be kept scoreless
until San Jose's Eric Wynalda scored the first goal in MLS history and sent
fans wild. The loss seemed to send United into a downward spiral as they were
in last place at one point. But they eventually picked up the pace and made the
playoffs with an even 16-16 record. United's inaugural roster included superstars
such as Marco Etcheverry, Jeff Agoos, Richie Williams, John Harkes, Jaime
Moreno, Raúl Díaz Arce and were coached by future US National team coach Bruce
Arena. In the playoffs, United would be taken to the limit by the MetroStars before
eliminating them in a third game. In the next round, the Black-and-Red would
shock the best team in the league, the Tampa Bay Mutiny as they earned the
right to be the first Eastern Conference team to reach MLS Cup.
1996 MLS Cup: October 20th was a great day for US soccer as DC United took on the Los Angeles Galaxy
in the first ever MLS Cup at New England's Foxboro Stadium. United would
not only have to battle the Galaxy, but they would also have to defeat Mother Nature.
Over much of the past week, the Boston area had been pounded with nonstop
torrential downpours, and on game day, it would be just as bad. Despite the soaking
conditions, the game would be a classic. LA went on top with a goal by Eduardo
Hurtado in the 5th minute. In the second half, the Galaxy's Chris Armas
gave his squad insurance in the 56th minute and LA appeared ready to take the first
ever Cup. Even with a 2-goal deficit and the blinding rainstorm, the Black-and-Red
would not go away as Tony Sannah brought his team to within one goal in
the 73rd minute. Then Shawn Medved evened the score in the 82nd. The match would
go to golden goal overtime and United stepped up. With the rain at its heaviest,
match MVP Marco Etcheverry took a corner kick to his teammate, Eddie Pope
and he calmly headed the ball in the net, completing DC's comeback and giving
his team the first ever MLS Cup championship.
1997: Coming off an historic championship season, United were looking to add another. This
time, the Black-and-Red would have little trouble with the competition as they
surged to the league's best record at 21-11. United would breeze to a sweep
of the New England Revolution in the first round of the playoffs. In the conference
final, United would dispatch the Columbus Crew in three games to advance
to their second MLS Cup.1997 MLS Cup: For the 2nd straight year, Major League Soccer's championship match would be played
in a cold, rainy mess. But that did not intimidate DC United as they faced the
upstart Colorado Rapids at their own venue, RFK Stadium. Jaime Moreno would
put DC on top in the 37th minute and send the fans wild. Tony Sannah would provide
insurance in the 68th minute and that would be all United would need. Despite
a 75th minute goal by the Rapids' Adrian Paz, the Black-and-Red would hang on
to win their second MLS Cup, 2-1 in front of 57,431 of their vociferous fans.
For his goal, Jaime Moreno was named MVP.
1998: In Major League Soccer's 3rd season, D.C. United remained the league's premier team
as they once again claimed the top spot in the East with a dazzling record of
24-8. In the playoffs, they easily swept the expansion Miami Fusion. In the next
round, the Columbus Crew would give United all they could handle before the
Black-and-Red prevailed and once again qualified for MLS Cup.1998 MLS Cup: The previous two years, United played the championship match in precipitation and
they seemed to like it that way, but this time, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
California, they would have to adjust to playing the big game in nice weather as
the match was played on a warm, sunny day. Going up against the Chicago Fire,
United fell behind on a 29th minute goal by Jerzy Podbrozny. Near the end of the
first half, the Fire would go up 2-0 on a goal by Henry Gutierrez, and that
was enough for the Fire. In front of 51,350 spectators, United would fall in MLS
Cup for the first time. Shortly afterward, coach Bruce Arena would resign and
take the head coaching position of the US Men's National Team.
1999: A loss in the championship game would send most teams into a slump the next year;
most teams. Under new coach, Thomas Rongen, United would rebound and take the
league by storm again to finish with a record of 23-9. Taking almost the same route
to the Cup as the previous season, the Black-and-Red swept the Miami Fusion
in the first round, and then beat the Columbus Crew in three games to remain
the only Eastern Conference team to make MLS Cup.
1999 MLS Cup: Similar to the championship game in 1996, New England's Foxboro Stadium was the site
as United faced off against the Los Angeles Galaxy, this time, under clear
blue skies, and not in a rainstorm. United took the lead on a goal by Jaime Moreno
in the 19th minute and match MVP Ben Olsen put in another during stoppage time.
That was all United would need as they hung on for their third MLS Cup in
four seasons.
2000: Everyone seemed certain United would continue to be the team to beat, but this year,
they had trouble from start to finish as they finished the season with a disappointing
record of 8-18-6, missing the playoffs for the first time in club history.
2001: In what would be Thomas Rongen's final season as United head coach, his team continued
to struggle, again missing the playoffs in the abbreviated season because
of 9/11 with a record of 8-16-2. After the season, Rongen was let go and Ray Hudson,
coach of the disbanded Miami Fusion, took over.
2002: Under Ray Hudson, DC would slightly improve, but would go through another tough season
as they, once again, sat in last place in the East with a record of 9-14-5.
2003: On paper, the Black-and-Red would not be much better than the previous two seasons,
but weak competition in the bottom half of the East was enough to catapult United
into the final playoffs pot, ending their playoff drought. In the aggregate
goal series, though, United would get shutout by the Chicago Fire. After the
season, Ray Hudson would be released and replaced by Peter Nowak. But the story
of the off-season put United on the front page of many newspapers as they signed
14-year old superstar Freddy Adu, who would immediately became the center of
the US soccer world as he would star in a commercial with soccer legend Pelé.
2004: The Freddy Adu era got off to a great start as DC United beat the defending MLS Cup
champions San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 in the season opener. The first half of the
season was not without its tense moments as Adu slammed new coach Peter Nowak
in June for only playing him an average of 23 minutes a game. In the second half
of the season, the club would put it behind them and finished the season winning
6 of their last 7 games to finish with a record of 11-10-9 and return to
the playoffs. In an aggregate goal series, the United would have no trouble at
all with the MetroStars, shutting them out 4-0. In the conference finals, DC was
up 3-2 with less than 5 minutes to play against the New England Revolution, but
the Revs' Pat Noonan tied the game and regulation ended in a tie. In golden
goal overtime, neither side could put the ball in the net, forcing the first penalty
kick shootout in MLS Playoff history. The shootout would go back and forth
until 'keeper Nick Rimando stopped Clint Dempsey's shot to secure DC United's
spot in MLS Cup for an unprecedented 5th time.
2004 MLS Cup: Back in MLS Cup for the first time in five years, the United would go up against
the Kansas City Wizards at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. Things
would not look good early on as in the 6th minute, the Wizards' Jose Burciaga scored
a goal from almost 30 yards out. However, it would only wake the Black-and-Red
up as Alecko Eskandarian scored two goals in the 19th and 23rd minutes, one
of which he received the benefit of the doubt for handling the ball. It would
get better for DC when the Wizards committed an own goal in the 26th minute.
In the 58th minute, though, United were threatened to go down hard as Dema Kovalenko
was given a red card for a handball in the penalty area. It was the first
expulsion ever in the nine-year history of MLS Cup. KC's Josh Wolff would covert
the ensuing penalty kick to make it 3-2, and United were hard pressed to live
up to the challenge of playing with ten men for the remainder of the game. They
were out-shot and committed the most fouls, but withstood the Wizards' attack
as time ran out. DC United would bring back the glory of their early years, clinching
their fourth MLS Championship, by far the most successful team in Major
League Soccer History. Eskandarian would be named MVP for his two goals.2005: The defense of their fourth championship would be easier said than done for the Black-and-Red
as the Washington Nationals moved into RFK Stadium. The field would
be overhauled and made to accommodate baseball. All season, United would complain
about the new setup. Attempting to get used to it, DC would win its first
three games before enduring a six game winless streak to finish out April. Freddy
Adu would briefly be in the starting lineup, but was quickly demoted again to
a reserve. After a mediocre first half of the summer, six wins in August and
a strong last two months earned United second place in the East with an impressive
record of 16-10-6. In the playoffs, though, the Black-and-Red's season would
quickly get flushed down the toilet, getting shut out 4-0 on aggregate to the
Chicago Fire.
2006: The Black-and-Red would come flying out of the gate, using a 14-game unbeaten streak
to catapult themselves back to the class of the league. Troy Perkins would
be stellar in goal and Christian Gomez reestablished himself as a player to be
reckoned with. But after a great start, the Black-and-Red faltered down the stretch
as they seemed to run out of gas. Despite winning only two games in September,
United held onto first place in MLS with a record of 15-7-10. The New York
Red Bulls would be United's first opponent in the playoffs. Following a tough
challenge in the second game, they would dispatch the Bulls, 2-1 in the series.
In the East Final, though, the New England Revolution and Taylor Twellman put
an end to their season at home, 1-0. Citing him as a distraction, United shipped
Freddy Adu to Salt Lake in the offseason.
2007: The Black-and-Red would get off to a tough start, losing their first three games.
But once they acquired Luciano Emilio and Brazilian World Cup playmaker Fred,
United would jell, surging past the competition, especially in the last half of
the year and clinch the best record in MLS at 16-7-7. But the playoffs would see
a quick and premature end of the season for the Black-and-Red, losing to the
Chicago Fire 3-2 on aggregate. Rubbing salt in the wound was that Christian Gomez
had a goal in the waning minutes disallowed for offside.
2008: Its an overall disappointing season for DC United, who no longer has to contend with
sharing RFK Stadium with a baseball team, as they finish in sixth place in
the Eastern Conference, failing to qualify for the playoffs for the first time
since 2002 with an 11-15-4 record. However, they were able to win the US Open Cup,
to provide a silver lining to an otherwise bleak season.
2009: As stadium troubles continued the plague the front office, the Black-and-Red would
have a difficult time on the playing field as they were bit by the tie bug, alternating
wins and losses with ties all year and finished out of the playoffs
with 9-8-13 record. The many ties would cost them a playoff berth as they were
tied with Real Salt Lake and Colorado Rapids with 40 points, but a -1 goal differential
cost them.
2010: United started off terribly, losing their first five matches and struggled with scoring
and defense all year long. At the end of the season, they sat in dead last
in MLS with a terrible 6-20-4 record, nine points worse than expansion Philadelphia
Union.
2011: Perhaps still shaken from a horrific season before, the Black-and-Red stumbled in
the first weeks of the season with a 2-4-1 start. From then on, it was mostly
ties for the club during the summer and a streak of four losses in a row in September
led United to a 9-11-8 record, out of the playoffs for a club record fourth
year in a row.2012: After opening the season with two straight loses, the Black-and-Red would bounce
back and would contend with Sporting Kansas City for the top spot in the East and
with a rash of rookies leading the way, DC claimed a second place record of
17-10-7, clinching a playoffs spot for the first time in five years. Without captain
Dwayne De Rosario, out with an MCL strain, United went up against the New
York Red Bulls in the semifinal round. The first leg was a bizarre 1-1 draw which
had an own goal by both teams, a potential game-winning penalty kick by Chris
Pontius saved and a red card to Andy Najar for throwing the ball at the referee.
The second leg, delayed a day due to a heavy snowstorm in the New Jersey area,
saw United go through to the East final by an 88th minute goal by rookie Nick
DeLeon. Earlier in the game, goalkeeper Bill Hamid was sent off for a challenge
and his substitute Joe Willis saved a retaken penalty kick to make the tight
finish possible. This series seemed to drain the Black-and-Red as they were
easily beaten in the East final by the Houston Dynamo 4-2 on aggregate.

2013: March 9th against Real Salt Lake, June 22nd against the San Jose Earthquakes and
August 3rd against the Montreal Impact were the only three wins the Black-and-Red
would collect all season as they were hit hard by the injury bug and tied an
MLS record for fewest wins in a season, finishing with a terrible 3-24-7 record.
In spite of this, United did manage to win the US Open Cup over Real Salt Lake.
2014: Needless to say, not much was expected from the Black-and-Red following an atrocious
campaign. Two losses to start the season had their fans bracing for an encore.
But led by Fabian Espindola's team leading 11 goals and improved chemistry,
United rebounded in a big way, going 11-3-4 in the middle portion of the season
and going unbeaten in their final six games to finish on top of the East at 17-7-9.
The 43-point turnaround was the largest single season improvement in MLS
history. Unfortunately for Black-and-Red supporters, Bradley Wright-Phillips and
the New York Red Bulls were not impressed as they ended United's season in the
playoffs 3-2 on aggregate.
2015: Following an impressive turnaround season, United looked to avenge playoff disappointment
and provide an encore. A 6-1-3 beginning gave some optimism that the success
could be sustained and during much of the summer, the Black-and-Red led
the East. A notable moment occurred in early August at Montreal when Chris Rolfe
scored on the team's only shot on goal the entire game and it turned out to be
the winner in a 1-0 result. But after that, the team won only two games against
six losses and one draw to slide down to fourth place at 15-13-6. Against the
New England Revolution at home, United conceded a first half goal from Juan Agudelo
before Chris Pontius evened the score at halftime. Chris Rolfe would score
with seven minutes remaining and the team survived a missed handball call off
Sean Franklin in stoppage time to advance. The New York Red Bulls put an end
to United season in the semifinals, shutting them out 2-0 on aggregate.